Insubordinate hypothetical manner constructions in French and Spanish: A pilot study

Abstract

This paper presents a pilot study of insubordinate hypothetical manner constructions (‘as if’) in French (comme si) and Spanish (como si). On the basis of the theoretical framework provided by Evans (2007) and Olguín-Martínez (2021), we analyse data from both written and spoken corpora and we propose a four-way constructional typology that establishes the different meanings such constructions can express and the discourse functions they can serve, and links these to patterns of tense-aspect-mood marking. Thus, we move beyond previous findings and add three more construction types to Brinton’s (2014) denial of an assumption type: a nuanced agreement type that serves the discourse function of expressing partial agreement with some preceding discourse; a discursive elaboration or reformulation type in which the speaker fully agrees with the preceding discourse and only reformulates or adds new information to it; and a scalar evaluation type, which belongs to the evaluative-attitudinal domain and shows distinct formal characteristics (only type found to show indicative mood + present tense TAM marking in Spanish).